Regarding Fall Exterior Painting...

Oh sure, the weather is supposed to hit 70 degrees today!

Again, It's Time To Stop Exterior Painting Projects!

One of the great things about this digital communication format is that I can see how people have found this blog - one of the main searches of late has been Exterior Painting. So I KNOW there are a lot of folks out there wondering if they can squeeze one last exterior painting project in under the wire...

Folks, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, it is time to put your brushes down for the season. Really.

Why? Well, unless there is a terrible storm your paint won't melt off (although that would look very interesting) - but the weather is too risky to predict a long enough dry patch to ensure that you will have the optimum result for your efforts.

Paint contains a lot of moisture, and if it is overcast, misty, drizzly (or any of the other descriptive words we use for rain), the moisture in the air hampers the ability for the moisture to evaporate from the paint and it will be sloooooooow going until the paint film is truly dry.

And if you have a high level of moisture on the surface to be painted, even worse. Trust me, this happened at my house and we had to have a whole side repainted in just a few short years due to moisture. This Paint Princess knows of what she speaks!

Paint may dry to the touch in a few hours, but it is not dry all the way through for quite a while afterwards - we call this the cure time. Cooler temperatures and moisture inhibit this cure process. So don't paint outside anymore (unless you really have too!) (And I understand this happens to the best of us!).

Instead, let's chat about some lovely interior color trends and turn our attention inside for a while...

Firing Our Customers

Yes, it happens - we have to respectfully break-up with our customers sometimes. It's never fun, and it upsets everyone. But you have to know where your line is in the sand.

Yesterday, I was called upon to do just that. A small mix-up in communication (from our perspective, no mix-up, but that's a story for another time!) resulted in the customer yelling, swearing and carrying on to the point where he not only alienated our two Design Resources staff, but the installer also insisted he would NEVER do work for that client.

I called the gentleman and as he was going on about our lacking service and attention to OBVIOUS details - I had to inform him that it was not acceptable to swear at THREE of our people over the relatively small issue at hand.

This is my favorite part, and the reason I wanted to share this: He hotly replied, "I swore at TWO of your people, not three!". (Isn't that like the sibling who tells his Mom, "Yeah, well he hit me back first!")

... Sending him a refund... (and besides, nobody refers to my momma as "THAT woman!")

Color Perception

We had a customer come in to pick up a color chip from a color consultation she had earlier. She was looking for the color "Chutney" by C2 Paint. When she pulled it out of the rack, we could see that she was a bit surprised at how intense the color appeared.

Luckily we have a small wall painted that color right in the showroom - what a difference! The color on the chip looked a lot stronger than when applied on the wall. However, when you compare the little chip to the wall, they match.

This is a good reminder about why we often stress the importance of trying a new color out in sample form before making a final decision. If she hadn't seen the color in a larger example she probably wouldn't have felt the "Chutney" was the right color after all. Seeing a life-sized sample allows the eye to read the color itself, and not the contrast of the color against it's surroundings. Color is all about relationships, one color to the other...

Northwest Designers Showcase Event

Friday night I attended the opening party for a designer showcase event called The Northwest Designer Showcase, presented by Glenn Richards.

Glenn Richards is this great store in Seattle featuring a huge space filled with antique Chinese and Japanese furniture, architectural elements and accessories from all over Southeast Asia. Downstairs you'll find a very cool furniture designer, Rom Lee, who uses many reclaimed items and beautiful wood elements in his custom designs.

The itinerant proprietors of Glenn Richards (pictured above) John and Laurie Fairman have decided to create a gallery space within their store, and from now through November 17th, you'll find different rooms decorated by local designers:


Lisa Staton, Kathleen Williams, Rachel Marez of Fix Design, Rom Lee, and of course Christina Ursino!

Each installation in their gallery space will be quite different, with plans to feature specific artists and let them have a run at the space.Kudos to that!

Here are some more images from the showcase (and yes, we happily provided the designers with all the C2 Paint they desired! We LOVE designers!)



Here's Lisa Staton in her luxurious living room (a little alliteration on a Monday never hurt anyone...). Note too, that Lisa just had a baby 8 weeks ago AND pulled off a showcase room...



Christian outdid himself AGAIN designing a dining room - I think my favorite touch is the leopard pattern on the dining chairs.


Speaking of babies, Rachel Marez of Fix Design Studio was worried that her baby bump wouldn't look good on camera... as if that is a worry! And look at the cool bathroom she created too!

Kathleen Williams created a romantic bedroom that just GLOWED - I only wish my camera could do justice to these spaces! Sigh...

Isn't This Pretty?

We have lots of great, creative people here at Daly's. Sarah, who works our of our Seattle store is also an artist. She whipped this out for fun the other day - it was also quite lovely in it's simple black and white phase before she laid on the color.

Click here if you'd like to see more of her work!

Whirlwind Weekend

I just got back from a great weekend spent in Chicago at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was a mid-year meeting of all the C2 Paint partners from all over North America. Hanging out in a hotel that is constantly playing great music, has hip furnishings and good company makes for a fun event.

As you have probably guessed by now, I'm pretty immersed in C2 culture - I feel so fortunate to connect with other independent paint retailers from all over.

Here I am with Jeff and Harry. Jeff is from Milton, Ontario and Harry from Providence, Rhode Island. We make up the marketing committee for C2 - so we communicate on an almost daily basis. Fun, fun, fun. We have a lot of work in the pipeline that is getting so close to being launched, can't wait for the fun to begin!

Of course it's not all play and no work! What is Chicago without a little action in the blue's clubs? Blue Chicago isn't too far from the hotel... and it reminds me of the night the color committee went out to Kingston Mines - inspiration for a number of C2 color names.


Pictured here is our spot-on marketing team:
Jeff, Kim (marketing & branding), Tia (ditto), me, Harry, and Jill (PR maven). Tia is located in Atlanta, Kim and Jill are Chicago-based. I think there is something to the fact that we aren't all based in the same geographical region - gives us a broader spectrum to operate within.


When I left Chicago on Sunday afternoon, the weather was in the upper 70's. Came home to mid-50's and rain!